LaCie Hard Drive not recognized by Windows 7

Anonymous
2010-02-13T02:14:12+00:00

I have a LaCie external USB hard drive (formatted FAT32) that shows up as a device in the control panel but does not appear as a drive or other device in the Windows Explorer.

The drive contains my music library. Any advice on how to find/access this drive?

Thanks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-02-13T23:17:38+00:00

Hi,

 Do you see any yellow\red exclamation mark in device manager?

 I would suggest you to open Disc management and check if the drive is detected there, here are the steps:

1.      1. Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer    Management. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2.      2. In the left pane, click Disk Management.

If it the hard drive recognizes in the disc management and if there is no drive letter assigned, I would suggest you right click on the drive and assign a drive letter and check if it helps:

1.      1. Right-click the drive to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

2.      2. Do one of the following:

·         To assign a drive letter if one has not already been assigned, click Add, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

·         To change a drive letter, click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the letter that you want to use, and then click OK.

·         To remove a drive letter, click Remove, and then click Yes to confirm that you want to remove it.

Refer this link for more information:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-add-or-remove-a-drive-letter

Please respond back with the status of the issue and let us know if you have any issues.

Azam – Microsoft Support.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-11-13T16:36:54+00:00

    I'm having the same problem of my LaCie drive not being recognized. It is definitely *not* a bad cable or bad drive, because my other computers see it just fine!  Even the IT guy from a local engineering college (where they know what their stuff better than me) gave up trying to figure out why my computer can't see this drive. He searched far and wide for a helpful post without luck. We are mystified.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-01T22:29:38+00:00

    I know I'm a BIT late, but just in case here are your options. If the drive shows up in your Devices list but not in My Computer, and running Disk Management doesn't provide the option to partition, you need to initialize the disk. Right-clicking in Disk Management SHOULD give the option "Initialize" at which point you'll be able to partition. If the initialization fails for whatever reason, there are two possibilities:

    1. It could be a bad cable or not have enough power. Try plugging in using a new cable, and if the drive has external power try using that. 
    2. It's a bad drive. Sometimes hardware fails. It always sucks, but the only thing to do at that point is see if the company will swap it out for you. Some places can repair them, and if there's still data on it you can take it to a computer repair shop to see if they can salvage anything, but there's a good chance the information is gone and you just need a new drive.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-15T16:38:29+00:00

    1.      1. Right-click the drive to change, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.

    I have the same problem with a Lacie external hard disk, but the option to "Change Drive Letter and Paths" does not appear in my computer.  It only says that the external hard disk (that I have used in the same computer for several years and contains plenty of data that I need) is not initialled.  I believe that if I initial it again, I will lose all my files in the disk.  Can anyone offer a valid solution to this problem?

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-12-02T21:01:32+00:00

    Hi There,

    I get to the step #1 in the above solution but once I click the **Change Drive Letter and Path,**I get an error window popup stating " Operation failed to complete because disk management console view is not up to date. Please refresh the view and try again".

    I have tried many times but nothing works. I can see the drive appearing in the console view as Disk #1 with the actual size but that's it. I cannot do anything further. Please see the image attached for further details. Thank you for your help.

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